The finals of the fourth annual Urban Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition was held in Padova, Italy on November 9, 2023. Sponsored by the Alliance of Guangzhou International Sister-City Universities, this year’s competition promoted by members and affiliate members of the Alliance was hosted by the University of Padova.

The theme of this year's competition was “Promoting Sustainable Urban Development with Scientific and Technological Innovation” focusing on Science Entrepreneurship. Competition finalists were judged by Innovation, Team, Commerciality, Social Benefits and Communication with the competition including three levels – In-School Preliminary Competitions, Semi-Final Competition and Final Competition. Teams competed for the equivalent of 300,000 RMB in prize award money and consultancy awards in the two categories of Concept and Start-Up Teams. This year’s final competition included a record number of entries - 12 Concept teams and11 Start-up teams.

Congratulations to the following teams competing asConcept Teams:

Gold Award

· “Carbon-Eating Bricks” from Guangzhou University

Silver Awards

· “The Ferrite Core—Breakthroughs on Mn-Zn Ferrites for the Substitution of Alloy on the Electric Automobiles” from Guangzhou University

· “Chi Solutions” from the University of Coimbra

Bronze Awards

· “Chip Heat Manager—Multi-Conditions High Limit Composite Liquid Absorbing Wick Micro Heat Pipe for Chip Temperature Control” from Guangzhou University

· “Tension Intelligent - Photovoltaic Defect Detection Solution Leader” from Guangzhou University

· WasteX from the University of Padova

Congratulations to the winners of theOutstanding Mentor Awards which recognize the invaluable contributions of each winning team's mentors:

· Shared Award for Xiaowei Ouyang and Bingcong Chen of “Carbon-Eating Bricks”

· Lingming Yao for “The Ferrite Core—Breakthroughs on Mn-Zn Ferrites for the Substitution of Alloy on the Electric Automobiles”

· Shared Award for João D’orey and Jorge Pereira of “Chi Solutions”

· Shared Award for Xiang Jianhua and Wang Mansi for “Chip Heat Manager - Multi-Conditions High Limit Composite Liquid Absorbing Wick Micro Heat Pipe for Chip Temperature Control

· Shared Award for Zhifeng Chen and Feng Wang of “Tension Intelligent - Photovoltaic Defect Detection Solution Leader”

Congratulations to the following teams competing asStart-Up Teams:

Gold Award

“BOAN Leading Innovator in New Antimicrobial and Anti-Adhesive Medical Coatings” from Guangzhou University

Silver Award

“Zah Biofuel” from Durban University of Technology

Bronze Award

“PUAILAN - The Domestic Leading Bio-Based Biodegradable Super Fabric from Guangzhou University

In addition to our host the University of Padova, the Alliance wishes to especially thank this year’s judging panel from member universities which included Professor Alexandra Aragao, Professor Carlos López Escolano, Professor Fabrizio Dughiero, Professor Jiami Liang, Professor Maria Ruokonen, Professor Viviam Tam and Professor Mansi Wang.